Friday's Child
by LibKat
Summary: KidFic! Prequel to my story Laps telling how Daniel came back as a baby.
1. Return to Sender

Friday's Child

by

libkat

Chapter One: Return to Sender

Disclaimer: Stargate SG1 and its characters belong to a bunch of folks who aren't me, darn it. I will return them undamaged when I am finished playing with them.

"Friday's child is loving and giving."

"Unauthorized off-world activation." Sgt. Harriman's voice echoed through the PA system of the SGC. The klaxons brayed throughout the base as Col. Jack O'Neill loped towards the gate room to greet whatever new disaster was on its way.

The SGC had been on alert since the devastation of Abydos. In the weeks since, Anubis had cut a swath through the System Lords. Everyone hoped that the half-ascended Goa'uld was not quite daring enough to violate the Protected Planets Treaty openly by attacking Earth. Yet, each time the Gate activated, Jack O'Neill came running, jocked and locked.

Jack arrived in the gate room just in time to hear the muffled sound of the kawoosh. A blue shimmer showed around the circumference of the gate's iris, indicating an incoming wormhole had been established. Then the iris began to open of its own accord, subsumed in blinding white light.

Jack could hear the panic in the control room, Carter and Walter tossing out half completed questions, answers, instructions in the nearly unintelligible language of tech geeks everywhere. Jack stood transfixed as SFs came to firing positions and Siler, with one of his crew, tried to override with the manual iris control.

Jack recognized that light. He had seen it several times and, while it generally didn't signify anything good, it was also not something you wanted to challenge with force.

"Stand down, Airmen. Stand down **NOW**!" Jack's Colonel voice, the one he didn't use very often, roared over the noise of the gate room. Thankfully, the men were well trained and muzzles dipped towards the floor just as the light coalesced into a figure that hovered just a bit off the ground.

Jack vaguely heard General Hammond's voice trail off over the PA system. He hadn't even had time to finish his outraged "Colonel, what the hell are doing?" before the reality sank in that an ascended being had just breezed past their strongest security measure.

Jack recognized the being. Oma Desala wasn't in the strict schoolmarm persona she had adopted when she had taken Daniel off to enlightenment land. No, this was the more ethereal Earth Mother they had encountered on Kheb. Blindingly white robes cocooned her as she floated her way down the ramp.

Now Jack O'Neill wasn't one of those folks who thought the Ancients were deserving of worship, but even he had to admit the sight was impressive. Less impressive was the noise accompanying her.

Ear-splitting wails were coming from the bundle Oma carried in her arms. Once her flowing robes settled around her, it was revealed that Oma carried a baby in her arms, a very angry, very naked boy child of about 7 months. Pudgy little arms waved and tiny feet kicked as the baby made his discontent known to the whole gate room, the whole mountain, possibly the whole of Colorado. The kid had lungs.

Oma Desala stopped in front of Jack.

"Colonel Jack O'Neill. I have come to return what was lost."

With those cryptic words, Oma thrust the baby outward. It was either take the child or let him drop to the floor. Jack juggled baby and P90 for a moment, then settled the little boy comfortably in his arms. The wailing subsided into snuffling whimpers.

"Whadda ya mean you're returning 'what was lost'? When did we lose a baby, for crying out loud?" Jack's voice stopped the ancient woman as she turned back up the ramp.

"Use the senses we gave you, Jack O'Neill. Do you not recognize the one you hold?"

Jack looked down at the bundle in his arms. Gazing back at him were the bluest eyes he had ever seen. Even with the redness from the tears, Jack knew those eyes. "Holy God," he breathed, "how did this happen? What have you done to Daniel?"

* * *

_Cold. Cold and bright. No like this. Hold tighter. No drop me. Oh, this better. Know this voice. This voice good. Safe now._

Danny Jackson settled into the arms that now held him close and secure. He looked into the deep brown eyes of the who held him and knew that he would be all right. He was home.


	2. Mind Out of Time

Disclaimer: Stargate SG1 and its characters belong to a bunch of folks who aren't me, darn it. I will return them undamaged when I am finished playing with them.

"Friday's child is loving and giving."

**Previously in Friday's Child:**

**"Holy God," he breathed, "how did this happen? What have you done to Daniel?**

Pt. 2

Mind Out Of Time

"Daniel … aniel … niel …"

Jack's voice echoed in his head as he found himself transported. His body was still there in the Gate room. If he really concentrated he could feel his physical self in some distant connection. But he, his awareness, whatever made him Jack O'Neill, had been taken elsewhere.

This shadowy, soft-focus Ascended Never-NeverLand was familiar. This was where Jack spent those last moments with Daniel. Here his friend had asked Jack to stop Jacob's efforts at healing, to let Daniel shuffle off the mortal coil and move on to glowier realms.

Crap.

Jack really didn't want to be back here.

"Jack O'Neill. I have not much time."

Oma was once again in schoolmarm mode. The impatience in her voice sent Jack right back to 5th grade and Sister Mary Immaculata, the scariest nun in the world.

Of course that brought out the smartass in him. "Geez, Oma, I thought being ascended meant you were above petty concerns like time. Seems like Danny-boy was right. The higher plane isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Oma sighed deeply. "I never could understand Daniel's attachment to you, Jack O'Neill. You seem the oddest of companions for so gentle a soul. Yet it was to you Daniel wished to come when Judgment was pronounced."

"What judgment? Whose judgment? C'mon, Oma, spill it. What happened to Daniel?"

"The Others happened, Jack O'Neill. They had been stalking Daniel since he intervened to save you from Ba'al. They were waiting for him to take the final step, to fall." Oma wrung her hands for a moment, then seemed to collect herself. "When he attempted to strike at Anubis, I stopped him. But it was too late. The Others had proof that Daniel would not, could not, remain aloof from humanity."

"How could 'THE OTHERS' ever think that he would? I thought you had to be enlightened to ascend, not blind stupid." Jack's exasperation seemed to press on the haziness of his surroundings, as though strong emotions disrupted the ascended plane.

"It was my fault. I should have seen that Daniel could not give up his connection to those he loved. But I had to try, Jack O'Neill. Surely you would not have preferred that Daniel had truly died." Oma looked and sounded more human in that moment than Jack had ever thought she could.

"Then you should have used your glowy powers to heal him, not take him away. That popsicle gal in Antarctica could have healed Daniel in a snap. And she hadn't even ascended yet."

"I have not the time to debate the ways of the Ancients with you, Jack O'Neill. You must accept that the Others have judged Daniel to be unworthy to continue on the ascended plane of being. And they would not allow him to be remade in his adult form. This was the only way to save Daniel from annihilation." Oma's gaze shifted pointedly at the small form in Jack's arms.

Jack looked down at the baby too. "Is there any of our Daniel left in there?" Jack heard the hint of yearning in his voice.

"Even I do not know if Daniel will ever regain any knowledge of his first lifetime. It as though this form was born in the moment that existence ended. But everything that was Daniel Jackson; his love of learning, his curiosity, his gentle nature, that is all there inside the child. It needs only time and nurturing to grow."

"Why aren't you keeping him like you did Shifu?"

"I have tasks, Jack O'Neill, obligations I have avoided for too long. Knowing Daniel has taught me that I can no longer shirk the responsibility for my errors."

"Take care of Daniel, Jack O'Neill. You shall not see me again."

With that Oma Desala's form shifted from human seeming to a bright orb of white energy. Jack found himself back in the Gate room, back in his body, holding a whimpering baby tight against his chest.

The Stargate still shimmered with the puddle of a wormhole to who knew where. Oma floated through it and the iris snapped shut behind her.

_No, no go there. There bad. Don't like it. Come back. Come back NOW!! _

Danny Jackson failed his arms and legs against the one who held him, trying to gain his attention, to call him back from the cold place. Panicked little sounds rose up his throat as the reassuring essence of The Man disappeared for an infinite moment. Danny felt alone again. He was afraid.

But before Danny could open his mouth to cry out, The Man was back and all felt safe and warm again. The Man cradled him close, his large hands flexing ever so lightly, calming Danny's frightened spirit.

The glowy lady was gone and she had sent The Man back to Danny.


End file.
